Pool safety in Mid-Michigan

With summer heat in full swing and the Fourth of July here, a Mt. Pleasant company – a national leader in pools safety locks – is busy promoting options to keep kids safe around swimming pools.

“It’s fun to be around the pool, but the [biggest] safety [concern] is that it’s taken for granted,” said Evan Crawford, marketing director for security device company LockeyUSA. “People think drowning can’t happen to them, but drowning can happen quickly and it can happen to anyone.”

LockeyUSA, whose corporate headquarters is located on 4245 S. Lincoln Road in Mt. Pleasant, manufactures products such as hydraulic gate closers and keyless gate locks distributed across America and Canada.

Crawford said that LockeyUSA has partnered with Pool Safely, the pool safety campaign created by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in raising awareness of the Pool Safely Pledge.

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The pledge is a checklist designed to educate parents and children about the best ways for families to be safe and prepared around a pool. Adults and children can take the pledge at the Pool Safely website.

Children can pledge to never go in or around a pool without an adult nearby. Adults can pledge to always supervise children while they’re in the water, learn CPR, and ensure that gates and fences around the pool are secure.

Crawford said that many products can be used to help restrict children’s unsupervised pool access.

“We see the fence and the gate as the first line of defense,” said Crawford.

LockeyUSA is one of 800 organizations partnered with Pool Safely for the program. Pollack said that the CPSC consider LockeyUSA to be a “campaign safety leader” in educating people about being safe in pools.

Pollack said the CPSC collects annual data regarding child deaths involving pools and spas, including that the number one cause of accidental death among children 1 to 4 is drowning.

“Last year close to 400 people across the United States under the age of 15 drowned in pools and spas,” Pollack said. “75 percent of these victims were under the age of 5.”

Pollock shared some steps on making sure that little pool goers will be safe this Fourth of July and beyond, including that parents should watch their kids in and around the water, children should learn how to swim, and parents should learn how to perform CPR.

Additionally, Pollack said that parents should ensure that the pool area has self-closing gates, self-latching gates, safe drain covers, and that the nearby fences are at least 4 feet high and are not climbable.

Pollock said these precautions are needed to make sure that young lives will have safe and happy swimming experiences.

“These are simple steps to keep children safe, and you never know which step is going to save a life until it does,” Pollack said.